Multiple infection in bovines from the tropics: observation of blood parasites by scanning and transmission electron microscope.

ABSTRACT

Blood samples from a splenectomized bovine, experimentally inoculated with blood from a field cow living in southwestern Venezuela, were processed for transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The blood sample showed multiple infection with hemoparasites of the genera Anaplasma marginale, Eperythrozoon wenyonii and Trypanosoma vivax. Scanning electron microscope showed that the blood from bovines with multiple infection had profound deformation in knob-like protruding structures with reduced cellular volume similar to echinocyte red blood cells. E. wenyonii parasites appear associated with the membrane, grouped in shallow to severe invaginations at the surface of the erythrocytes. The morphology of the parasites is predominantly rod-like; they also appear as coccoid-shaped and bifurcate or triskelion-shaped organisms. The organisms are present in pairs or clusters. T. vivax appeared with double flagella, which indicates active cellular division and infection processes. Transmission electron microscope study showed erythrocytes infected with intracytoplasmic bodies of A. marginale and with E. wenyonii embedded in the external membrane cell, with mature, juvenile and dividing forms present.